Today I looked again at the cottonwood tree and there is no doubt, it IS leafing out weeks and weeks earlier than normal. And in the yard instead of one little clump of daffodil tops poking up through the soil and leaf debris under the forsythia bush on the west side of the house, today there are several. Yesterday's warmer than normal day, even warmer than normal in an abnormally warm winter must have inspired them. It also inspired us. We were away for most of the day because we took advantage of the weather and clear roads to go about 90 miles southeast to Ontario, Oregon for some business and a good Italian lunch. There is nothing like eating in a place where they make their own sauces from scratch!
We also visited our favorite nursery where I bought some seeds. Stores in our town have yet to put out their racks of seed packages but the nursery/seed cleaning business, well they always have seeds! Some of the ones I bought were grown in the intermountain west so should be acclimated. Those were packaged with a different local company name. What might grow wonderfully in the deep south or mid west doesn't necessarily grow well here. And besides, it's nice to keep things local as much as possible. A fact I recently learned is that plant performance is affected by altitude as well as the things we usually hear about. This came from a farmer who raises many varieties of corn for a big seed company.
Today I looked where I always see the first daffodils and counted 5 green sprouts about an inch high. Way too early! A week or so ago I was sure I saw some green on the top of a cottonwood tree but I keep forgetting to take a walk with the binoculars to get a closer look. I've looked from the house with them but was not 100% sure it was not just my imagination, however, when I spotted them I was not looking for anything, just saw something different and grabbed the binoculars to try to see it more clearly.
The snow has all melted except in very shady spots, where there are drifts or where my hubby pushed it out of the driveway. Most of our driveway can be cleared with the tractor mounted snow blower but around the buildings it has to be pushed to keep from burying something. Instead of walking in snow we are now walking in mud. The driveway got pretty soft and the county road has spots where the car wants to go a little bit sideways.
Today I harvested a bag of salad greens from my little patch in the greenhouse, put more potting soil around the peat pellet things with the latest babies growing in them and watered everything in the greenhouse. I need to buy more potting soil next week. The 10% senior discount at the farm store saves me about $1.29 on each bag so I want to take advantage of that. Eventually I get a free bag! Several years ago we had a neighbor who was a farmer's market gardener. He bought potting soil by the pallet load! I helped in the greenhouse and in the field. When he went out of business he gave me a lot of his leftover equipment and supplies, including several unopened bags of potting soil. Long gone now but much appreciated.
As in most places our weather changes often. The weather warmed a few degrees and now what is falling from the sky is more rain than snow. Some nights the temperature stays above freezing. This is unseasonably warm weather. Instead of snow now we have mud. I'm careful where I step and so far have kept my feet dry. Leather tennis shoes do a surprising job! Cloth or vented ones would not. I always buy the leather ones because in the summer the cheat grass seeds would go right through the others, and even with leather I get one of those sharp seeds that somehow find their way into my shoe. Those seeds have a sharp point on each end and must have little barbs on them because they are very hard to pull out of a sock. We have a few other nasty types as well. One is called puncture vine and will puncture a bicycle tire!
My part of Oregon has not had the ice storms that you've probably seen on the tv news. It's been bad in western Oregon and on some of the highways leading from there into our area. The interstate both eastbound and westbound has been closed more times than I can count already this winter and we can expect more of the same for at least the next two months. That effects everyone in one way or another with mail and other deliveries just put on hold until the problem is cleared. Sometimes there are wrecks in both directions from our area. Most of the medical facilities that go beyond the basics are often out of reach. The birthing center in our local hospital closed so that has effected a lot of families. Serious cases, things like heart attacks, vehicle wrecks, etc. beyond the basic emergency room services are sent to Boise, often by helicopter for prompt attention because the trip to the Boise area takes almost 2 hours by road and about 25 minutes via Life Flight. Believe me, we keep our membership in that organization up to date because a trip to Boise costs close to $20,000. OUCH!
Today I walked/slid down the hill to the garden to bury the contents of the kitchen trimmings buckets. I had to chip through a couple of inches of icy ground in order to dig holes. The soil under that frozen layer is not frozen so I know that my garlic is still not encased in ice. I try to imagine what is happening down there about 5-6 inches below the surface. I won't see anything green in the garlic rows until mid to late March. Funny to think about planting something and not seeing anything for about 6 months. Gophers are probably eating well and there will be gaps in the rows. Even if the frost goes down to the garlic cloves they'll be ok. I used to mulch with straw every year but this year I didn't as all of my varieties are well acclimated.
The wind stopped, the temperature rose a few degrees and we got another couple of inches of snow on top of what we already had. If I had to guess I would say between 6-8 inches total. It's drifted to 3-4 feet high in places and swept bare in others. Our coldest night was also the windy one and was brutal with the combination. That was when I was making multiple trips to the greenhouse. The following two nights have been without the wind and a few degrees warmer. I am pleased to report that the greenhouse has remained above freezing!
Thankfully, my neighbor delivered hay the day before the storm. He brings 2 bales at a time, moving them with his big tractor equipped with a grapple. He farms on a large scale. Big equipment, big hay bales. I measured the bales. They are 8 and a half feet long by 34 inches square and weigh around 900 pounds each. The tires on his tractor are over 6 ft high. He puts up several hundred tons of hay every year to feed hundreds of black angus cattle. His son helps him and so does his wife. It's a real family operation. He's a 3rd or 4th generation farmer in this area. His grandfather and uncles homesteaded in this area, and he and his brother and other family members all have ranches nearby.
The tractor refused to start yesterday so we are still snowbound. Thankfully we don't have to be going anywhere.
We've had a few inches of snow and a lot of wind. Our driveway is full of drifts. Most of that blew from across miles of open fields, it was originally someone else's snow but now it's ours. My hubby will use the snow blower when the wind stops. Until then, we are snowbound. Our high temperature today might have reached 20. Tonight it might get down to -20. I hope the furnace in the greenhouse can keep it from freezing.
Yesterday before the weather moved in I finished repotting last year's geranium starts and planted my newly started vegies which had started sprouting in their peat pellet pots. The bottoms of those were opened up to allow roots easier access to the soil. Planting them into the in-ground greenhouse bed may have been a mistake because now with the storm it is down into the low 30's in the greenhouse. Later note: I put an electric heater in there, wired all of the vents closed. The exhaust vent (for summer cooling) was flapping with the wind hitting it at an angle, and the roof vents were trying to open. Those are steel framed and quite heavy but the wind was lifting the lower edges. They are now wired down to the center bench. All of that should help.
